Monday, April 21, 2008

This Week's Menu and a Giveaway!

**UPDATE: The deadline for entering the giveaway below, is Thursday April 24th by midnight! Please leave a comment and sign up for an email subscription (if you don't have one) ASAP to be in the drawing! A winner will be announced on Friday April 25th! **

Finally! I'm back with my weekly menu plan! The past few weeks I have been thrown off due to a different work schedule and some unexpected trips. Michael is now the first one home most days and he's been in charge of starting dinner, which means SUPER simple, but yummy meals. (Amy, aren't you impressed!) And since Michael has been so willing to be in charge, he's choosing the meals!

The ingredient of the week with the gluten free menu swap is cilantro. I'm not a fan of cilantro so we won't be making anything with this herb, but visit Gluten Free Mommy for more gluten free menu plans and meal ideas this week!

The good folks over at Triumph Dining were kind enough to send me their latest edition of "The Essential Gluten Free Restaurant Guide."

This guide is really a fabulous tool to have if you are on a gluten free diet! It includes menus for over 4,700 restaurants that serve gluten free meals! The guide also contains lists of gluten free foods available in many chain restaurants in the back of the book. This guide is perfect to have in your car to have at a glance if you are traveling!

Triumph Dining was also kind enough to send me a set of incredibly handy cards that you can take into restaurants to show the waitress and cooking staff about what you can and cannot eat on a gluten free diet. These cards are kept in a convenient ziplock bag and are available in many different languages, which will enable you to eat safely at many different restaurants with international cuisine!Unfortunately, I don't do a lot of traveling outside of NC, so I think these cards and the restaurant guide would be incredibly helpful to someone who travels a lot or lives in a location with more gluten free choices!Would you like to have this wonderful guide and a set of these helpful cards?

You can buy them directly from Triumph Dining here, or you can register to win!

Here is how you can win this set:

1. Leave me a comment below and tell me what kinds of recipes you would like to see more of on this site!

2. Sign up for an email subscription to this blog with Feedburner in the form below!! This is a great way for you to keep up with my blog and it's a shameless ploy to gain more readership!

3. We will randomly select a winner from your comments below! You MUST have an email subscription to qualify to win!

I love all the recipes but would especially like to see simple entrees. And, since we are not really travelers either, you can exclude me from the drawing (I just want dibs on adopting you as my gluten free blogger for the next month!).

krcjjck - I will definitely be posting more EASY, FAST gluten free meals! If you will let me know which food allergies your family has (in addition to gluten) let me know and I'll try to work around those as well! Most of my recipes are already soy free and gluten free.

Thomas -- You bet! I will definitely subscribe to your blog!! ;-) I'm glad I'm not the only one who is shameless! lol And I'll definitely work on quick, easy, SIMPLE gluten free meals! We certainly need them at our house!! Wow! You want to adopt me for next month for Sea's event! I'm super flattered! You made my day! THANK YOU! I hope you find something good to make!!

OH MY Strawberry Pie! That looks so good. I want to come down to your house for a week and have you cook that for me!!I like complicated menus with a minimum of 20 foreign ingredients - how is that for a request?? :)I need to simplify my recipes for weeknights so I have more time in the garden now that it is nice out. Can you mail me a pie?

Carrie, you've solved the mystery I was dealing with this week! Right now, I live in Upstate SC, and we've started seeing good strawberries in the grocery store, and cheap, too- and I just kept saying, "but it's not strawberry season!" (I'm from MN, and they've barely dug themselves out from winter up there.) Yum yum yum- I just had a handful with dinner!

I agree with Thomas, I'd love more simple entree ideas- you can never have too many.

I would love the Triumph Dining guide- with family in the Midwest and on the East Coast, I've spent more time in the car than I care to admit. :)

I've already got your blog on the feed on my My Yahoo page, but I signed up for an e-mail subscription also! You have great recipes/posts and I love reading and trying them!

I would love to see more quick recipes. Its always nice to be able to throw something together quickly, either in the morning or when you get home. Anything with minimal prep, & ingredients, but maximum taste. (always the best combo!)

I love your blog. I've been trying to watch what I eat. I feel like now that I'm eating healthier, my dinners are plain and boring. I would love to have some healthy, but tastey and exciting dinner options again. Thanks for all that you do!

I am constantly looking for kid friendly & healthy recipes. So many of the recipes and menu ideas I find are great for me, but not my 7-year old who is GF -- not to mention my other 2 kids. Also, I want recipes that are naturally GF, or require little adaptation since there is only one GF person in the house and for cost reasons, I cook both GF and regular.

Happy Earth Day! I don't have a suggestion that others haven't already said. I have 3 girls and I'm just trying to get them to eat GF with me. It's not working so well, and it's only me who has food issues. I excited to see what all you come up with. (I subscribed too, so I hope I win!)

Ginger -- You are so funny! LOL Well, I'm not sure how many foreign ingredients we'll find at the Piggly Wiggly (I think spaghetti noodles counts as foreign down here! LOL My mom-in-law told me my "chili" was good the other night.. it was an italian meat sauce! oh well!)

Kristina -- I'm sure it is a shock to see fresh fruits and veggies out so soon now that you live down south!! I'm glad I could help with your mystery! I will definitely be putting my thinking cap on for more simple yummy gluten free entrees!! Thanks for commenting!!

Jacki -- Thank you so much!! I love your site too!! You have some fantastic recipes that I cannot wait to try!!

Lauren -- You have definitely put me up to the challenge! Apparently quick, easy, delicious dinners are really in high demand!! I will definitely see what I can come up with!!

Jennifer -- I will add exciting to the list of dinner entrees! It does seem like when you eat healthy sometimes it gets boring! You've given me quite a challenge! Thank you for entering!!

Eileen - YOU MUST try that pie!! It is so good! I can't wait to make another one!! The diet can wait until after strawberry season! haha!

nweames -- That is a very good point! Foods that are naturally GF are usually easier to make and often foods you are already eating! I will definitely work this into easy, simple, and hopefully kid friendly meals! My husband is a picky eater and if he likes something, I'm hoping your kids will too!! Thank you so much for commenting!!

Marsha -- Happy Earth Day to you too!! Make a strawberry pie and celebrate!! I can see that kid-friendly, easy, simple, but really delicious meals are in high demand! I will try my very best to come up with some recipes that fit that criteria for you! My work schedule is so crazy that we really need meals that are quick and easy too! thank you so much for commenting and getting an email subscription!!

I'm a brand-new reader living with gluten intolerance in Louisiana. i love finding new recipes, but I'd love to see way more stuff using naturally gluten-free foods instead of replacement products. I'm trying to cut down of heavy complex-carbs as a whole, so things with rice pasta or gf bread don't always fit into my menu well.

Hi Carrie, Natalie over at Gluten Free Mommy sent me your way. That strawberry pie looks scrumptious - strawberries are just now showing up in our southern Oregon markets now.In addition to gluten, I also have dairy and egg allergies. I work full-time and still have 2 (out of 8) children at home.I would love super easy to fix recipes. I don't even have much time for fix-ahead recipes and I'm a big fan of the 30 minute & under meals, but trying to remain gluten-free, casein-free & egg-free isn't easy, especially when I come home from work exhausted. Hmmm... sorry to be so long-winded. The fatique is already setting in.

Zufallig -- Thank you so much for becoming a subscriber! I know it's tough being new to the whole gluten free thing! I hope my website and others will help you to see that it really isn't as tough as it seems like it will be! If you need any help, feel free to email me at gingerlemon_girl at yahoo dot com!

Melanie T -- Feel free to email me! I have a list of some meals/foods/desserts that I have on the site that are very kid friendly! Most still contain dairy and eggs, but I am going to start working on more recipes that are both egg and dairy free and Kid friendly!! So please stay tuned!

I would love some yummy recipes that are heavy in veggies. Things where the veggies are flavorful and appealing to those who are reluctant to eat veggies but the recipes must be quick and easy....and gluten and casein free.....

I am also interested in 'twofers'....you know, cook once get two (or more) meals out of it. Or things that can be made and part of it frozen for future meals on 'those' nights or when I need a quick lunch.

Karen -- Goodness gal! You are tough!! I'll definitely try to come up with some meals that have lots of veggies and lots of flavor!! And I'll try to make them big enough that you can use them twice or make two meals out of them! Thank you for your comment!!

Suzanne -- Ohhh pasta! Actually I really like Tinkyada and I've never thought to improve upon them! But I should try pasta! You are right! One blogger in particular who has produced lots of amazing looking homemade pasta is Karen of Gluten Free Sox Fan! You can find her blog in my blogroll, click on her Recipes link and scroll down to her pastas! She has made potato gnocci and rolled pastas! They look incredibly good!!